Chapter 8

I was idly walking in the garden adoring the different flowers and minding my own business, when a woman came over to greet me. She looked about my age give or take a few years. She was a few inches taller than I was, had lively brown eyes, and brown hair that was tied neatly into a bun. She was wearing a black dress with white trim that fell just below her knees and a white apron with lace.

“You must be the little masters’ new bodyguard.” She greeted with a big smile. “My name is Katarina, I am the head-maid here.”

“The name’s Jaimie. Yes. I am the new bodyguard of Ana and Gavin.” I responded.

Katarina looked at me from head-to-toe. “You’re so pretty. I expected the new bodyguard to be—”

“Taller?”

“Muscular.” She said matter-of-factly. “But yes, now that you mentioned it, I’d expected someone taller, and less… easy on the eyes.” She added.

Katarina’s eyes scanned me once again; slower this time. She walked around me in a circle while keeping her eyes transfixed on me, surveying every detail of my frame. 

“The rumours were true…” Katarina started, her eyes fixed on mine. “When I heard the other servants talking about how the new bodyguard looked like Mistress Amelia, I was expecting it to be a huge joke. But the joke’s on me because you do look so much like her; pretty blue eyes, wavy blonde hair, pale white skin, and a tiny waist.”

I have to get used to this; that the first reaction everyone in this mansion will give me is that I look so much like their dead mistress.

“It is unbelievable that a human could look so beautiful— so frail and innocent— and yet here you are standing in front of me. A huge part of me cannot accept that you’re a man. I could put you in a maid’s outfit, and you’ll still get eyes to stare at you; some envious, some wanting.”

I felt oddly uncomfortable despite the fact that Katarina was complimenting the way I looked. I never thought myself as good-looking. Well, I do admit that I am fairer than the average man­— or woman if you’d put it. However, in my entire life in the agency, I have never been stared at the way I have been stared at by Lucas, the kids, and now even this woman I just met. I can’t blame them though; for this family, looking at me is like looking at the dead brought back to life.

“Thank you.” I guess? I do not know the right response to such praise? If one could even call it that.

“I’m so sorry for overwhelming you, dear.” Katarina said in a sweet tone. “It’s just that I haven’t seen a pretty woman here ever since the Mistress passed away. All the other servants here are either old men or women or my brothers, who I love to death, but I can’t really talk to them about the latest dresses and make-up, now can I?” She added.

“And you think I would be interested to talk about such topics?” I asked, slightly exasperated. Can I please just talk to the horses?

“Well, no. But at least I can talk to someone beautiful. I will definitely dress you up in a dress when I get the chance.” She said excitedly. I, on the other hand, was not excited at all. What is with women and wanting to put dresses on me?

As I was idly chatting with this woman called Katarina, my phone suddenly rang; it was the ringtone I set for my co-workers in the agency. “It was nice meeting you today, Katarina, but I suddenly have urgent business to attend to.” I said quickly as I ran to find a secure spot where I could quietly answered my phone. When I got to a safe place, hurriedly fished the phone out of my inner breast pocket— it was John.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Jaimie, we have a situation.” John said as calmly as he could, but even through the phone I could hear that he was clearly troubled about something.

“What is it, John?” I asked.

“Do you remember the man who kidnapped the Dawson kids two days ago?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I do! I shot that bloody bastard dead.” I exclaimed. Where’s this going at?

“Yeah, about that… Remember when we thought that he was the notorious serial killer were trying to hunt down the past few years?”

“What do you mean by ‘we thought’? Get to the point, John!” I was starting to get concerned. My hands started to shake. I have a bad feeling about this.

“We had the body autopsied and the results came in today.” John said. “We found out from his finger prints and dental records that that man was a common criminal. Aside from the fact that we don’t think he had the mental capacity to pull off ‘The Doctor’s’ elaborate kidnapping schemes and the hand-eye coordination to cut up all those children years ago, he was in incarcerated for burglary when the serial kidnappings happened.”

“So you mean to say that I shot at the wrong man?” I questioned.

“No, he was definitely part of it. However, we think this is much bigger than just one man, Jaime.” John’s usual carefree tone was now dead serious. “I don’t know what you would do with this information, but there is something else; the kidnapper had terminal cancer and had only a few days to live.”

A chill ran down my spine. If what John said was true, then it all made sense; the reason why we could never track down this serial killer dubbed as ‘The Doctor’, why he always seemed to get away from our grasp. “John, do something for me, would you?” I need to confirm something.

“I got you. What is it?”

“I need you to give me all the records you can get relating to any and all of the children’s kidnappings in the past 10 years, solved or unsolved, especially those handled by our agency.” I instructed. “Can you meet me here?”

“Sure. Text me the address.” He said. “I’ll call you as soon as I get the files.”

“Thanks John.” I replied. “Take care!”

“See ya’, Jaime.”

The phone call ended, and I was dumbstruck. My hands were still shaking as I returned my phone inside my inner breast pocket. This is the first big lead we had to the London’s most gruesome kidnappings, and I wasn’t in London to work on the case. A part of me thinks that being whisked away to the country-side was not a coincidence. I hope that part of me was wrong.